“Your Existence is the Resistance.”
During our Witchy Wed chat this week, as we discussed some current events, the above message from my Deities kept creeping in. One of those messages that have taken deep root within me.
Not everyone is going to be on the visible front lines of a battle, yet we are all part of it. Yet, in our current climate it feels if you are not publicly “fighting” than you are hiding your head in the sand. Many have expressed this feeling to me over the last month. Ones who for various reasons do not have the ability, or situation, to charge to the forefront of battle. It isn’t that it doesn’t matter, they are just not in a position to. My response to them: Your Existence is the Resistance.
Battle
Battles are not just fought with a physical warrior mentality. They are fought by the healers. They are fought by those who work silently in the shadows, weaving change through the mind. They are fought by those who nurture a different perspective in the young so that they grow to create positive change in the world. They are fought by the Guardians, who do not seek the fight, but stand only to protect. They are fought by being a living example of what could be instead of what is right now.
When I think about energy and battle something always comes to my mind – What are we feeding? When it comes to battle many people think about the aggressive stance of a warrior. Anger and hate being at the center of that drive. The issue is that it was anger and hate that started the battle in the first place. If the side you are fighting against started from anger and hate, that is the pattern they are feeding – thus when you fire back with anger and hate, you are also feeding that pattern. When it comes to energy, who has the strongest and most cohesive intention will control that energy.
This is why I think political magic is some of the most difficult. Those who start the battle are generally focused on one goal, one cohesive intention and align their side behind that. The other side, the one being attacked is slower to gain cohesion, if they ever do. It generally starts with those being outwardly attacked first, then their allies start trickling in to their aid. As the attacking force expands their targets, more allies start trickling in fighting for pieces and parts but not against the full intention of the attacking force.
Changing Tactics
Animism I think can teach us a lot here. If we are focused on small divisions such as: women’s rights, LBGTQ+ rights, or any other certain group of people, than what we create is pockets of energy. If we would focus on the rights and needs of all people, then we create a large cohesive intention. Through the large cohesive intention, we would be the ones wielding and controlling the energy being feed to that pattern.
At the core, we are all humans. Everything that divides us are surface level creations of societal structures. They are different perspectives and ideas of what safety, food security, shelter, community, and so forth looks like and how to achieve it – yet we are all striving to meet these basic needs because we are all human. This recognition and shift in thinking I think is the first step to ending these conflicts between us.
People are not born evil or with prejudices, they are learned behaviors and thought processes. We hold so many societal conditioning that we do not even recognize them. It is one of the areas we touch on in my Death Emissary course (the Spirit Walking section) because there are many of these conditioning we have to break down to build healthy bonds with and effectively work with Spirits/ the Dead/ Deities and so forth. It surprises many of my students that when they start that process they keep discovering more – things told or taught but that are not their actual experience and that do not hold true for them. I know this feeling, because when I started that deconstruction work I could not believe how much conditioning there was. Things we hear all time, ingrained as just truth or fact, yet it was just people just repeating the same concept over and over – Not because it was true, but because it is was what they were taught.
This is why you have to look at everything with a critical mind. You need to do your own research. Don’t just take what someone says as truth, dig and find out for yourself if what they say actually holds up. You need to listen to all sides – not to agree but to understand their perspective. By seeing all the different perspectives you can see the places they all overlap – thus giving you the common ground between and a piece of truth. You need to question everything, not just follow a talking head or someone because they say they are an authority.
It starts with the concept that we are all human though. Seeing each other as one instead of the surface divisions. To know we all hold the same needs and the same potentials.
Going Deeper
Once we can shift our mind to see each other as human, then we can start shifting our mind to see our place within nature. Not above it, not ruling over it, but a part of it. We, as humans, are just one part of this larger system of nature, an ecosystem made of a variety of different souls, all having a place within it.
By recognizing this, and seeing our place within it, we start to connect with our environment in a more meaningful way. Not looking at it as our own playground to reap, but a shared space that we all inhabit. The tree are different from us, yet we share resources, space, and give back to one another. The mosquito, hated as it may be, is a vital part of this ecosystem, feeding small prey to feed bigger prey and ultimately feeding us. The male mosquito is also a pollinator, thus contributing to the plant production in our ecosystem. We all have a place, and it is interconnected with those we share it with.
This idea that we are “better than” or more entitled to do as we please because we are humans is kind of absurd if you really think about it. It is very reflective of the human against human divisions we touched on earlier.
Yes, we will use the resources in the ecosystem for our needs, our survival, and our betterment as a species – just like every species does. The problem comes in taking more than we need. Taking because we can or because we feel we have a right. We don’t. We are a part of – not the controllers of.
Animistic thinking isn’t just for the tree-huggers, naturalists, or witch in the woods. Animistic thinking provides a different way of perceiving each other and the world we live in. It outlines a path to bring us to a place of wholeness, within ourselves, with each other, and with all the aspects of nature. We are not separate, we are all connected in various ways.
Living Example
This brings us back to the beginning – Be the Living Example. Your Existence is the Resistance.
You can not control or change anyone but yourself. Even control through fear wanes over time and is never true change, just a false mask someone wears. The only true change is what you create within yourself. By living authentically in who we are and the changes we make within, is how we resist. Through this action we are showing people another way of being, thinking, and moving. Inspiring them and giving Hope for other possibilities. Giving them “permission” to do the same for themselves (they do not need permission but for some reason some people think they need it).
It is slow. It is ripples rolling outwards, touching one person at a time, and then if they choose to keep rippling it out. It changes us though and our experience of this life. Changing our perspective changes the world for ourselves. Just as their negative is influencing how you are viewing your life/ world, you have the ability to do that from a positive perspective instead.
We are not all the societal view of a warrior, standing on the front lines with our physical weapons fighting against injustice. Some people are going to focus on the Hope and possibilities of what could be. They will be transforming that in themselves and the world around them that they touch with their ripples. They will be the living examples of a different way to be and move with each other and the world we all share. They will be healing themselves, and healing the parts of the world they touch.
Their existence alone is a form of resistance. They are just as valid as the warriors on the front line and just a necessary for a new future.
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